


fair and flighty love

by sapphfics



Category: Barbie - All Media Types, Barbie as the Island Princess (2007)
Genre: Angst, Antonio/Ro is a thing but it isn’t happy or healthy, F/F, Femslash, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Wishes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22181092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphfics/pseuds/sapphfics
Summary: Ro has wished on stars for as long as she can remember.Or: Five wishes Ro makes and how they each come true in their own ways.
Relationships: Luciana/Ro | Rosella (Barbie as the Island Princess)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 77





	fair and flighty love

**Author's Note:**

> warnings: antonio sucks, bad marriage, referenced cheating (not with ro), referenced sex 
> 
> this was meant to be finished for sapphic september last year but it wasn’t...hope you enjoy anyway? <3

Ro has wished on stars for as long as she can remember.

Granted, this isn’t very long. If Azul’s timeline is right, she’s only been on this island since she was six years old and she remembers nothing before that. She thinks she may have hit her head before being washed on shore but she can’t remember. Someone was calling a name, desperately, telling her to hold on. 

There is a lot you can tell by the map of the stars. Ro had sometimes fantasized about swimming away to discover some new land far from her island, but what was out there but the sea? The island is small but they grow enough food to feed them all, and Ro is safe here. Has been safe. 

Still, Ro likes to say things to the stars that she cannot speak of in the light of day. It isn’t that she doesn’t trust her friends. Tika is a fragile thing, childlike and still hurt from her year around humans, and Azul is self absorbed and Sagi already has too much to worry about. 

She doesn’t want to burden them. 

She tells the stars things she can remember about her past, sings to them a song that has been etched into her memory like the sea is etched into the earth, and stays up until dawn. 

She doesn’t like to sleep, doesn’t like to dream of the water filling her lungs and the panic in that man’s voice. 

She’s seven years old when she makes her first wish. “I wish I could remember my name.” 

She passes out there, on the ledge, and she dreams of that same man again, only this time she thinks she can hear him say “Hold on, Ro-“ 

She wakes up in the early morning light to find the letters on the front of the trunk that was washed up to shore with her. She traces the remaining letters with her small fingers, digging her nail in until it cracks. R. O. 

Her name must be Ro. 

She thanks the stars that evening and decides not to waste her wishes on selfish desires. 

-:- 

It’s a terrifying new sensation to feel the ground move beneath her. The island hardly ever moved except when the sea was eating it. She hates this feeling. 

She doesn’t mind the feel of Antonio’s hand in hers as he steadies her against him. “I’m here, Ro, it’s okay.” He smells like salt. 

Her second wish she tells to the clouds above them. “I wish to find my birth family.” 

Her mother holds her in her arms and she cries and then she is wed within two days. She doesn’t tell Antonio that she would sooner never see another boat again. She just smiles and tells him “I love you” as if either of them have any idea what that truly means. 

-:-

Two weeks into the honeymoon, when half their crew is sick and vomiting overboard, Ro tells Antonio “I wish I could go home.”

And they do. The honeymoon was supposed to last three months, with them travelling back to her island and around the world together. 

But Ro hasn’t even had time to see her birthplace yet. All trips there were put on hold before they were married. She misses her mother, a family she has never known, and she misses the animals. There are only seagulls at sea and they don’t make for good company. 

But still, Ro had fed them with some of the food that the ailing crew couldn’t stomach, so they don’t squawk at her quite so much. The sea is terrifying and quiet and Ro spends a great amount of time below deck lying on her bunk trying to stop the ceiling from spinning. It doesn’t help that even the ceiling bores her. Marriage, so far, has mostly bored her. 

Everyone will probably be expecting her to be with child soon, even though she is hardly more than a child herself. He’s only taken her to bed once, in the brig, and she doesn’t feel a desire to have him do so again. She had liked the way it had made her feel, she just hadn’t liked him. Antonio hadn’t even stayed the night, too preoccupied with paying attention to the captain and ensuring the boat remains on course. She supposes she should be grateful. The ship looks a little like the one she was wrecked on as a child. Too much. 

She can tell that Antonio is angry with her for cancelling their honeymoon so soon. She doesn’t care. He still kisses her as they arrive at the docks, but not quite as sweetly as he had before. Maybe he’s tired or maybe he’s sick of her already. 

It doesn’t matter. She sees her mother waiting for her at the docks, smiling sadly, carriage to take her home so close behind her that her mother is practically leaning on it.

“My father has built us a castle between both of our homelands,” Antonio tells her. “We’ll be alright.” 

-:-

The new arrival to the palace is a very pretty young girl. She is twenty years old — older than Ro was when Antonio brought her here — but she is a bit naive in a way Ro once was, too. 

But now she knows better. It’s been five years. 

They have yet to have children, and in the right light, Magdalena almost has her eyes. 

Antonio claims her parents sent her here so he could teach her about being a ruler, but as far as Ro is concerned, the only thing he knows is about boats. 

“Why is she not learning from your parents, then?” She asks. 

“She thinks she will relate to me more,” Antonio says smugly. She wants to wipe that stupid smirk off of his face. “Why do you care? Are you jealous, wife?”

“My name isn’t wife,” Ro spits back. “I’m just wondering what relatability has to do with ruling?”

“No offence, Ro, but what do you know of ruling?” Antonio asks. “You’ve only been in civilisation for six years. I handle all the ruling, and you sit there, looking pretty.”

“Civilisation?” Ro is furious. “Did you forget that I had parents before I met you?! I still do.”

“Enough of this, please,” Antonio says. “Now, I’m off to go and meet Magdalena. Don’t wait up for me.”

“I never do,” Ro mutters to herself. She sighs and turns to see one of the servants who has come to fetch her tea. She hates tea. “I wish Antonio would tell me the truth.”

And that is exactly what he does, to his credit. It isn’t Magdalena he’s having an affair with — that’s what she will call it, even if he calls it a tryst — which she is grateful for. But word travels quickly. The servants must have gossiped, she excepts, and she supposes she can’t blame them. 

His mistress flees the kingdom in disgrace and her soon to be ex husband follows her on his boat. 

The castle his father built for them feels empty with only her residing in it and she suddenly realises how very lonely she is. Her mother passes in her sleep the night after she hears of Antonio’s disappearance. Her father died years ago. Even all her beloved animal friends are dead now. She almost misses her island. She would go back, perhaps, if she knew that there would be something more awaiting her except ghosts. 

That is when she receives a letter from Luciana, asking if she can come and visit. Ro writes back, Please come soon, without hesitation. She doesn’t care if she sounds desperate. She needs to see Luciana again. 

-:-

Somehow, Luciana has only grown more beautiful in the six years it’s been since they last saw each other.

But Ro may be biased. 

Luciana wears her hair up, now. Braided in a crown. Ro likes the way it frames her face. She’s still wearing purple. It’s familiar and comforting all at once. 

Ro knows it is custom for wives and queens to also wear their hair up here. But she likes the weight of her braid down her back, and she is stubborn to change. 

“I missed you!” Luciana says brightly. She’s brought with her a pile of books that is taller than she is. “I’m so sorry about—“

Ro smiles and holds her hands. “Let’s not talk about him. He made his choice.” 

Luciana is just as lovely as ever. She teaches her to read, and they spend hours in that library Antonio neglected to tell her about, curled up together on the floor. 

Her fifth wish, “I wish for Luciana to find love and happiness even if it isn’t with me.”

Inadvertently, she makes her own wish come true when Luciana kisses her. It feels right in a way that kissing Antonio never did. 

“A heart is made to share,” Ro whispers and Luciana grins. 

“You’re my jewel beyond compare,” Luciana says, and it’s honest. 

Ro smiles and feels happier than she has in years. “And you’re mine.”

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me on [tumblr](https://sapphfics.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/sapphfics) if you feel so inclined! let’s be friends <333


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